


Call It One Drink Too Many

by monkiainen



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Despair, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-20
Updated: 2014-09-20
Packaged: 2018-02-18 02:32:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2332049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monkiainen/pseuds/monkiainen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The remaining Hufflepuffs are mourning for their lost housemate. Set in the night of Cedric Diggory's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call It One Drink Too Many

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Houses of Hogwarts Fest in [](http://hh-sugarquill.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://hh-sugarquill.livejournal.com/)**hh_sugarquill**

Cedric Diggory is dead.

Cedric is dead, and nobody tells them anything. They only saw when Cedric’s dead body was carried away from the maze, his father Amos weeping on his side. The only person who truly knows what happened to Cedric is Harry Potter, and he hasn’t been seen since.

_(Emily whispers frantically that she had known Harry Potter was bad business the moment Chamber of Secrets was opened two years ago, but nobody pays attention to her. Emily always sees conspiracies when there isn’t one. Emily means “eager” and she is so eager to prove everyone that Harry Potter is not the hero they think he is that nobody listens to her anymore.)_

Why did it have to be Cedric?

Why couldn’t it be somebody else, anyone? Why did it have to someone from Hogwarts? Couldn’t it have been a Durmstrang or Beauxbatons student instead? Why? Nobody answered their questions.

The Weasley brothers, despite being Gryffindors, have hoarded Butterbeers from who knows where and let them in the kitchen for Hufflepuffs to have. The house unity hasn’t been this strong since the last time Voldemort was alive.

_(“Is he really alive?” they keep asking from themselves. Harry Potter said so, but will they believe him?)_

Butterbeers are flowing and the Hufflepuffs don’t know whether they should celebrate Cedric’s memory by remembering all his good qualities and telling funny stories about him, or should they mourn for his death. So they do both, laughing and drinking and crying and drinking all the same time.

The sixth and seventh years tell stories of a time gone by, of when Cedric first started at Hogwarts. How he was so small, so small for his age that some of the Ravenclaws picked on him because of it. He never raised his voice or attacked his bullies, but let them be instead. Eventually the teasing stopped, because Cedric’s bullies never got the pleasure of making him cry. _(if only they had known what Cedric was like in his dorm when he thought nobody saw him)_

Cedric means “kindly and loved”. Oh he was so kind, so kind to everyone, even if they belittled him. When Cedric was chosen to be the Hogwarts Champion, there were those who didn’t understand why a mere Hufflepuff was chosen. They know now, and Cedric has never been more loved than he is now when he can’t see it for himself. Cho agrees, and weeps for the boy she loved more than anything.

Cedric Diggory is dead and Voldemort is back. It can’t be true, it can’t be.

They sit in their Common Room in silence, not knowing what to do.

Justin leaves abruptly, only to come back with a bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky. Nobody asked where he got it from, although in the following week they heard Filch complaining about someone breaking into his office and stealing some of the forbidden objects he had confiscated from the students. Hufflepuffs are never suspected.

The smaller ones are being sent to bed, and it’s only the sixth and seventh years left. First they just take little sips from the bottle as it’s going around in the Common Room. The little sips grow in size, and before too long they are mixing Firewhisky with Butterbeers and whatever they happen to find. The burn of the Firewhisky dulls their pain and sadness and grief and loneliness. It only lasts a while, though.

Why is Cedric Diggory dead?

Why is Harry Potter still alive?

Nothing makes sense anymore, and it’s not just because of all the Butterbeers and Firewhisky they have been consuming in the past few hours. People are not supposed to die young.

They want to understand it, they really do, but there are no simple answers.

The door to the Hufflepuff common room opens silently, and Professor Sprout steps in, her face streaked with tears. She is followed by Dumbledore, his usually friendly face set in a grim line. If they smell the alcohol in students’ breath, they don’t acknowledge it. This is not the time for detentions or point deductions.

Cho is the first one to offer drinks to their professors. In a common room filled with sixth and seventh year Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw, a Herbology professor and the Headmaster, there is not a single dry eye left.

“For Cedric.”


End file.
